Columbus – Don’t Know How To Act (New Music)

Brisbane’s Columbus are back with a new twist on their emotive sound. Alex Moses, Ben Paynter and Daniel Seymour have been busy behind the scenes and have now revealed new track “Don’t Know How To Act” as well as news about their second album. A Hot Take On Heartbreak follows on from the band’s Next To Me EP (2017) and Spring Forever album (2016), and will be released on 25th May via UNFD.

Since we last heard from them, the collective of Columbus have shared that they’ve gone through an evolution of their sound that they attribute to a shift in their individual listening tastes. The trio have leaned into late 90s/early 00s alt-rock influences, such as Weezer and The All-American Rejects.

In Alex’s words: “On Spring Forever we went into the studio and did exactly what we wanted. But after touring that record and it coming time to do a new one, we realised that the music we wanted to play was distinctly different. We didn’t want to be a pop punk band anymore. We didn’t even want to be a punk band anymore. We wanted people to know us as a rock band.”

“I’ve never felt this way before, I thought she wanted more”

“Don’t Know How To Act” is a guitar-heavy love song where insecurity takes centre stage. Lyrically questioning if he’s enough for this woman-of-his-dreams, “Don’t Know How To Act” vibes like someone who’s smitten and not entirely sure this is real.

As well as being romantically angsty, “Don’t Know How To Act” is sing-in-the-shower catchy by way of its chorus, and Columbus have added that flavour to their music video. A stand out for us is the feral guitar moment leading into the last chorus, in true grunge style.

Creator and caretaker of Depth Mag, Kel uses her superpowers of empathy, word-weaving, and feeling everything deeply, to immerse herself in music before returning to reality to write about her experience with it.